The LOOPDOT Has Fewer Lumens Than a Torch Half Its Price — and Reaches 30 Metres Further (UAE 2026)

The LOOP GEAR LOOPDOT Pixel is the strangest thing on our shelf. It is a 400-lumen pocket torch wrapped around a 52-LED RGB pixel screen that plays animations and mini-games, with a knurled fidget dial instead of a normal switch. It costs AED 199 — more than double the AED 89 Acebeam Keylite 500 sitting next to it, which is brighter on paper.

So we did what we did with the Baton 3 Pro Max: we went after the number the manufacturer would not print. What came back was the opposite of what the lumen figures suggest.

The 30-second verdict

• It reaches further than the brighter torch. 400 lumens against the Keylite 500’s 500 — but 100 m of beam against 70 m, and roughly double the peak intensity. The LOOPDOT has the tighter beam. Working shown below.
• You are still not buying it for output. At AED 199 you are paying for the pixel screen and the dial. The Keylite 500 is AED 89 and the Olight i3E EOS is AED 59.
• The catch: LOOP GEAR publishes almost no data on it. No IP rating, no runtime for any mode, no weight, no candela. We will not invent them, and we have listed every gap below.
• Buy it if you want the one torch in the shop that people pick up and refuse to put down. Skip it if you need a documented work light.

What it actually is

• 400 lumens, 100 m beam. Enough for a dark stairwell, a dropped key, a walk across a car park. Not a work light.
• A 52-LED RGB pixel matrix with 11 play modes, including interactive mini-games. This is the reason the LOOPDOT exists, and LOOP GEAR is not pretending otherwise.
• Stepless dimming through a knurled fidget dial. The ring turns smoothly and sets brightness anywhere between minimum and full, rather than clicking through fixed modes. Most torches at any price make you cycle a button.
• Shake to switch. A flick of the wrist toggles between flood and spot. No button press, no menu.
• Built-in 600 mAh rechargeable cell in a machined aluminium body.
• Three finishes in stock: Aluminum Gray, Aluminum Green, Aluminum Blue.

The number LOOP GEAR does not publish — and how we worked it out

Candela — peak beam intensity — is the figure that tells you how far a torch throws, as opposed to how much total light it makes. LOOP GEAR does not publish it for the LOOPDOT. But it does publish a beam distance of 100 m, and under the ANSI FL1 standard those two numbers are locked together:

candela = 0.25 × (beam distance in metres)²

Before using that on the LOOPDOT, we checked whether it actually reproduces the figures the established brands print. We ran it against every pocket light we stock that publishes both numbers:

Three exact hits and two inside a rounding error. The formula holds. Applied to the LOOPDOT’s published 100 m:

0.25 × 100² = ~2,500 candela

This is our calculation, not a LOOP GEAR specification. It also inherits whatever optimism is in the 100 m claim — if that figure is generous, so is this one. But you can check the arithmetic yourself, and you can check our verification cases against the product pages linked above.

Where that actually puts it

Here is every pocket light we stock, ordered by reach. All figures are from each manufacturer’s published data for the exact variant we sell; the LOOPDOT’s candela is the derived value above.

The LOOPDOT makes 20% less total light than the Keylite 500 but concentrates it into roughly twice the intensity, which buys it 30 extra metres. That is not the LOOPDOT being better — it is the LOOPDOT being a different beam. The Keylite spreads its 500 lumens wider, which is the more useful behaviour inside a room. The LOOPDOT puts more of its 400 into a tighter cone, which is more useful down a corridor or across a yard.

If that trade-off is new to you, our flood vs throw guide explains why one number never tells you enough, and lumens vs candela vs beam distance covers what each figure on a box is really measuring.

The honest part: four things LOOP GEAR does not tell you

Our listing for this torch says “Not published by LOOP GEAR” in four places. That is deliberate, and here is what each gap means for you.

1. No IP rating. LOOP GEAR publishes no waterproof rating at all for the LOOPDOT. We are not going to invent one. Treat it as a dry-pocket item — no rain, no pool, no boat, no wadi. If you need something you can drown, read what IP ratings actually promise and buy an IPX8 light instead: the Keylite 500, the i1R 2 Pro and the i3E EOS all qualify and all cost less.
2. No runtime for any mode. Not one figure. So 400 lumens is a maximum with no stated duration — and when we timed the step-down on every torch we sell, the median compact light dropped about 65% off its headline number at the first step. For contrast, the Keylite 500 publishes its full ladder (500 lm for 20 seconds, then 260, then 50) and the i1R 2 Pro publishes 180 lm flat for 23 minutes. You can plan around those. You cannot plan around a blank.
3. The 600 mAh battery is built in and not user-replaceable. When the cell finally ages out, the torch ages out with it. Our battery and charging guide covers why this matters more in UAE heat than in a cooler climate.
4. No published weight or length. We can tell you it is a machined aluminium pocket item, because we have handled it. We cannot give you a gram figure, because LOOP GEAR has not stated one.

None of this makes the LOOPDOT a bad product. It makes it an undocumented one, and at AED 199 you should know that before you tap buy. It is the same pattern we found on the other LOOP GEAR light we stock — the SK05 Pro 2, which has the biggest number on our shelf and the smallest spec sheet.

Full specification

Who it is for

Gift buyers. This is the easiest thing in the shop to give someone who does not think they want a torch. The pixel screen does the selling for you. If you are shopping gifts generally, our pen light gift guide and the Olight Sphere C at AED 75 cover the same instinct from different directions.

Desk people and fidgeters. The dial is genuinely satisfying and the mini-games are not a gimmick bolted on — they are the point of the product.

Anyone who wants 100 m of reach in a pocket item and does not need it to survive water.

Who should buy something else

• You want the most light per dirham → our budget EDC shortlist. The i3E EOS at AED 59 is where that conversation starts.
• You need it wet → anything IPX8. The Keylite 500 gives you more lumens, a published runtime ladder and a waterproof rating for AED 110 less.
• You want a real everyday carry torch → the Olight Baton 4 at AED 210 is AED 11 more and gives you 1,300 lumens, 170 m and IPX8.
• You are not sure what class of light you need at all → start with how to choose a flashlight in the UAE.

Should you buy it?

Buy the LOOPDOT if you want it. That sounds flippant, but it is the honest answer for a product like this: nobody needs a torch with a pixel screen, and the people who want one will not be talked out of it by a spec table — nor should they be, because the thing is a pleasure to handle.

What we will not do is pretend it is a value buy. AED 199 gets you fewer lumens than an AED 89 Acebeam, no waterproof rating, and no runtime you can plan around. What it also gets you, which nothing else in this shop does, is a longer reach than its lumen count suggests and a screen that makes people ask what it is.

One last thing worth saying plainly: LOOP GEAR is a new brand here, and its regional service network is unproven in a way that Olight and Acebeam’s is not. We wrote about how warranty support actually works in the UAE, and if a long support tail matters more to you than a novel product, that is a legitimate reason to pick one of the established names — see our brand guide.

Stocked in the UAE and priced in AED. Specifications are taken from LOOP GEAR’s published data for the exact variant we sell. Where a figure is unpublished we have said so rather than estimated it — the single exception is the derived candela figure, which is labelled as our calculation throughout.